Coaching Tip #27

Tagged – Practice Management, Coaching Practice, Team Development

When I was a player the thing that my coaches did that annoyed me most was telling me my defensive position should have been where the ball just bounced.  ‘But you just told me that I had to there!’, is what I always shouted back to them in my head, if not out loud.  What those coaches lacked was a clear system of play, or at the very least the consistency to make that system clear in the minds of their players.  The players were always confused about what the coach actually wanted from them.

For coaches, consistency is the essential.  That means consistency of message, consistency of instruction, consistency of feedback, consistency of tactics, consistency of discipline, consistency of mood are essential for a good coach.  Consistency is the best (only?) to ensure that the team properly understands what it is that the coach wants them to do.  To be consistent, the coach must have a clear vision of what they want to do and how.  Conversely, if the team does what is asked of them and loses the point, the coach’s feedback must reflect that they did the right thing not the outcome.

Be consistent.

The collection of Coaching Tips can be found here.

For more great coaching tips, check out the Vyacheslav Platonov coaching book here.